...Mass culture in American disenchantment yielded enchantment with promoters such as P.T. Barnum. Barnum, creator of the first American beauty pageant, stated in the mid-nineteenth century, “the public appears to be disposed to be amused even when they are conscious of being deceived.” American audiences were challenged to determine whether what they were seeing was real or not and how such realistic illusions were created. Mass culture gave rise to a subjective passion of wonder for illusion. Theatrical producers manipulated the new mass media, such as newspaper, to promote debates about the authenticity of their exhibits, submitting to “a new, media-driven form of curiosity – perpetually excited, yet never fully satisfied.” The ceaseless proliferation of representations consequently undermined truth. The illusions and discussions they engendered served to distract audiences away from the Victorian cult of truth and sincerity and pushed for a new awareness of contingency and illuminated the possibility of multiple perspectives. Deceptions and emerging ideas of modernity generated from the changing nature of the economy, contested accounts of race, class and gender and novel findings by scientists and philosophers about the connections between perception and reality made way for a centrality of illusionism to modern life. The ubiquity of representations generated by the mass market blurred distinctions between artifice and reality....
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...first witnessed or gave theory to this multifaceted change. Multifaceted because it effected a diverse range of innovative and experimental practices in the visual arts, literature, design and architecture. New genres and styles were being invented and combined to push preconceived ideas and traditions. As society started to accept these changes, the world saw a rapid growth in urbanisation and industrialisation. In fact Wallace. J, wrote ‘ in examine the spaces of modernism, the city is an almost obligatory starting point’ (2011). The many new technologies that were were being invented during the early 20th Century increased the development and manufacturing of cities sevenfold. Changing cities meant changing cultures. People were living like never before. The modern city was a exceptional space for its facilitation of new forms of culture. After the second world war, the art world witnessed the styles and creative practices of European culture shift to America. American modernism like modernism in most areas of the world is a trend of thought that humans have the power to create, shape and improve their environment. Foster, .R did state ‘What distinguishes American modernism is the unifying theme of a conscious search for identity” (2003). Meaning artists and architectures searched for what it meant to be American? What would set the United States apart from Europe and the rest of the world? America’s economic and technological progress throughout the 1920’s ‘gave rise to widespread...
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...Caroline Barnes and Simon Jackson This paper offers a critical reading of Robin Boyd’s narrative of the Australian nation created for Australia’s pavilion at Expo’70. The critique offered is from an environmental perspective, using this example to lead into a broader reflection on Australian design history’s ‘modernity problem’. We argue that although the examination of Australia as a socio-cultural context for the practice of design continues to engage scholars, the will to profess the existence of progressive Australian design has precluded significant examination of design’s regressive effects. The current environmental crisis is, as Arturo Escobar argues, ‘a crisis of modernity, to the extent that modernity has failed to enable sustainable worlds.’[1] Design is implicated here for its contribution to environmental degradation, as is design history for accounts that validate designers’ development of concepts, processes and products that impose the unsustainable on societies. The latter is pronounced in Australian design history. When modernity and its cultural manifestations are understood as European inventions, admitting limited scope for cultural exchange, claiming historical significance for Australian design inevitably involves the uncritical application of imported principles.[2] The halting attempts to write Australian design history are mostly bound up in proselytizing for the values and benefits of the modern and eulogising designers’ efforts to force change in the...
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...Globalisation, of course, is therefore a manifestation of a neo-liberal economic ideology. Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world. : all those processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single world society. : Globalization can thus be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. For eg. Recession US eg The International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people and the dissemination of knowledge. Further, environmental challenges such as climate change, cross-boundary water, air pollution, and over-fishing of the ocean are linked with globalization. Globalizing processes affect and are affected by business and work organization, economics, socio-cultural resources, and the natural environment. Globalization is deeply controversial, however. Proponents of globalization argue that it allows poor countries and their citizens to develop economically...
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...The 1920s swept in a new era of modernity through families having more money to spend on activities for pleasure and women and African Americans challenging social norms. After World War I, machines that were used to manufacture war materials became repurposed for industry, which sped up the process of producing technology and cheapened the price of goods. An economic boom occurred as a result, which gave the average working family both more money and more time to spend on leisure activities such as going to the theatre. Sales of automobiles and household appliances skyrocketed, marking the increase of modernity in the average family. Commercial entertainment became widely popular since families had more money for leisure activities. Both radio...
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...At the turn of 20th century, the relationship between art and society was changing rapidly. Several art movements emerged, with artists strongly believing that the main goal of art was to influence and change status quo. This change was caused and influenced by several issues, such as rapid technological development, development of science, philosophy or photography, crucial cultural and political changes, first world war, etc. In this paper, I will discuss the aim and the effect of three important 20th century movements that are integrally related to the growth and development of Modernism in the early 20th century: dada, surrealism and futurism, analyzing their manifestos and works of art, how they challenged their modernity and what impact did they have on latter development of art. The first art manifesto of the 20th century was introduced by Futurists in Italy in 1909. Before that time, the manifesto was almost exclusively a declaration with political aims. The intention of different artists adopting the form, therefore, was to indicate that they are employing art as a political tool, addressing wider issues such as the need for revolution, problems of political system and/or society, freedom of expression, etc. Moreover, it was not uncommon for manifesto writers and other members of the movements of the early 20th century to also be politically active. Futurist leader – Marinetti was one of the young intellectuals and artists who actively opposed Italian government’s...
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...The momentous Western developments of the early nineteenth century were industrialization, urbanization, and increased economic and political interaction worldwide-matured quickly during the latter half of the century. The industrial Revolution in England spread throughout Europe and to the United States. Because of this dramatic expansion, the third quarter of the nineteenth century is often referred to as the second Industrial Revolution. While the first Industrial Revolution centered on textiles, steam, and iron, the second was associated with steel, electricity, chemicals and oil. The discoveries in these fields were the foundation for the development in plastics, machinery, building construction, and auto motive manufacturing. These finding help paved the way for later development in the invention of the radio, electric light bulb, telephone, and electric streetcar- still seen in modern day California. The most significant invent during industrialization was urbanization. Western cities grew dramatically during the later part of the nineteenth century; mainly do to migration from rural regions. The widely available work opportunities in the cities, especially in the factories, were also a major factor in this migration. An increasing emphasis on science was another characteristic of this period. Advances in the industrial technology reinforced the enlightenment’s footing on rationalism. The connection to science and progress advancing seemed obvious to many, both...
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...Literature, Arts, and the Humanities: Analysis and Interpretation Literature, Arts, and the Humanities: Analysis and Interpretation A1. Earlier Historical Art Period - Impressionism Impressionism has been considered the first modern movement in painting. It started in the 19th century and was developed in Paris. Impressionist paintings are work produced between about 1867 and 1886. Its influence spread throughout Europe and eventually the United States. “Its founding members included Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro” (Art, 2000-2014). “Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise exhibited in 1874, gave the Impressionist movement its name. A critic Louis Leroy accused it of being a sketch or "impression" not a finished painting. The original artists were rejected by the government-sanctioned exhibitions, or salons. Short visible strokes are the style included in Impressionism. This may include dots, commas, smears and/or blobs. Paintings by Impressionists often show shadows and highlights in color. The style of loose brushwork gives an effect of spontaneity and effortlessness. Impressionism shows life in bursts of brief moments. There was major political and social transition in central Europe that helped lead into the Impressionism period. This included the 19th Century industrial expansion. Farmers were forced to become paid labors in factories. Governments across Europe are exploring methods to balance the polarities of social right...
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...of offering some commonly diverse choices. So today you can buy sushi in either France or Germany. This makes France and Germany more alike, yet in my view this is closer to being an increase in diversity than a decline in diversity. If we think of societies that have very well developed markets—for example the United States—what we find happening is not that everyone, for instance, buys or listens to the same kind of music. As markets have allowed suppliers to deliver products to consumers, we’ve seen a blossoming of different genres of music. In the 20th century the United States evolved rock and roll, rhythm and blues, Motown, Cajun music, many different kinds of jazz—ragtime, swing, stomp—heavy metal, rap. The list goes on. When I look at the empirical evidence from societies with well-developed market economies, I find that what people want to buy is not fixed or biologically constructed. When the cost of supplying products goes down, people tend to use culture to differentiate themselves from other people, to pursue niche interests, to pursue hobbies. It’s the poorer or more primitive societies in which people specialize in one type of consumption. If you go to pygmy society in the Congo, for Critics of globalization contend that, even if increased trade promotes material prosperity, it comes with a high spiritual and cultural cost, running roughshod over the world’s distinctive cultures and threatening to turn the globe into one big, tawdry strip mall. George Mason University...
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...American Studies BA 3rd year Course title: American Educational System Student name: Mircea Stănciucu Educational initiation into culture in post modernity A. Educational initiation into culture Initiation in culture and the acquisition of cultural tools are the most stringent requirements that school should meet now and always. Knowing to cultivate oneself, learning how to carefully use power to judge, to reason, to distinguish the false from the truth, good from evil, ugly from beauty, are qualities that have formed through schooling and this need increases itself as soon as it is stimulated. At some point, one does not even require guardianship regarding culturalization. Cultural plurality, once internalized, awakens and opens new possibilities. Thus, culture gives birth to culture. School should potentiate and develop in students the capacity for adaptability and understanding not only in terms of knowledge, but also that of true culture, knowing how to use what one knows to behave intelligently and lead a remorseless existence. Conditions of modern life require that every human has to learn every day; school is where learning starts and this learning that the child receives should provide what is necessary so that, in the future, self-improvement would be employed: education and teaching are thus an initiation, an opening. A series of acquisitions of cultural goods, by their presence, does not guarantee empowerment of individuals. A genuine culture is actually...
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...Mies’s German Pavilion as an Expression of Modernism Constructed for the International Exhibition of 1929, Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion at Barcelona was designed “to represent Germany’s openness, liberality, modernity and internationalism” at the conclusion of World War I. With its logical free plan, glass and marble walls, steel supports and lack of ornamentation, it embodied the principles of architectural modernism. An object of simple serenity for those living in the perils of a chaotic post-war nation, the structure provided an opportunity for reflection to those seeking a new national direction. The pavilion’s modernism was perhaps best exemplified through its technique. It “consisted of a rectangular slab roof supported by steel columns, beneath which free-standing planes of Roman travertine, marble, onyx and glass of various hues were placed to create the feeling of space beyond.” Noted for its austerity, the lack of ornamentation signaled the rejection of a corrupt imperial regime and the classical structures associated with it. Mies instead intended to develop a new form of modern architecture appropriate for an impending industrial democracy. For it was his aesthetic belief that “architectural beauty resides in the simple, spare, almost chaste execution of a logical system.” “The boldest contribution of orthodox modern architecture was the development of what has been called ‘flowing space’…This kind of space produced an architecture of related...
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...of offering some commonly diverse choices. So today you can buy sushi in either France or Germany. This makes France and Germany more alike, yet in my view this is closer to being an increase in diversity than a decline in diversity. If we think of societies that have very well developed markets—for example the United States—what we find happening is not that everyone, for instance, buys or listens to the same kind of music. As markets have allowed suppliers to deliver products to consumers, we’ve seen a blossoming of different genres of music. In the 20th century the United States evolved rock and roll, rhythm and blues, Motown, Cajun music, many different kinds of jazz—ragtime, swing, stomp—heavy metal, rap. The list goes on. When I look at the empirical evidence from societies with well-developed market economies, I find that what people want to buy is not fixed or biologically constructed. When the cost of supplying products goes down, people tend to use culture to differentiate themselves from other people, to pursue niche interests, to pursue hobbies. It’s the poorer or more primitive societies in which people specialize in one type of consumption. If you go to pygmy society in the Congo, for Critics of globalization contend that, even if increased trade promotes material prosperity, it comes with a high spiritual and cultural cost, running roughshod over the world’s distinctive cultures and threatening to turn the globe into one big, tawdry strip mall. George Mason University...
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...Exhibiting the Human Body: Carnivalistic Primitivism at the World’s Fair of 1893 Aimée L. Arcoraci-Davies HAVC 191P: The Image of Time Final Paper June 12, 2014 The World’s Columbia Exposition of 1893, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair, was a vibrant hub of exhibitions showcasing the latest in technological innovation and ethnographic inquiry of “primitive” and pre-modern ‘Others’. The Chicago World’s Fair was held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus landing in America, but was held a year later than planned. The World’s Fair symbolized progress and the idealized society as portrayed through the “White City” and neoclassical architecture. This essay will be analyzing the display of peoples participating in the Midway Plaisance section at the World’s Fair as contrasted with fairgoers and their sideshow managers, the exoticization imposed upon the bodies of the participants through the spectator gaze, and the association with the rationalization of time relative to the turn of the century period of colonialization, mechanization of power and shift in time consciousness. Viewing the fair using symbolical and rational measurements of time through a contemporary lens, I plan on examining the ways colonialism, entertainment, and hegemonic ideologies led to socially engrained hierarchical prejudices and racial stereotypes in United States popular culture. I plan on analyzing the correlation between the World’s Columbian Exposition’s founding principles of industrial...
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...Author John Steinbeck, who is considered one of the greatest American Authors of his time, wrote during the Modernism period. Particularly, in his work titled The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939. We can see evidence of the characteristics, themes and style identified with the Modernist movement which was extant in American letters between the late nineteenth century and the mid twentieth century. As a representative of such a movement, John Steinbeck then remains one of the most identifiable and iconic writers of his era. Born in California, John Steinbeck came from a family of moderate means. He worked his way through college at Stanford University but never graduated. In 1925 he went to New York, where he tried for a few years to establish himself as a freelance writer, but he failed to do so and returned to California. After publishing some novels and short stories, Steinbeck first became widely known with Tortilla Flat (1935), a series of humorous stories about Monterey's paisanos. Steinbeck’s novels can all be categorized as social novels, dealing with the economic difficulties of rural labor, though there is a streak of worship of the genuinity in his books, which does not always agree with his approach. After the rough and...
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...HISTORY AND THEORY STUDIES FIRST YEAR Terms 1 and 2 Course Lecturers: CHRISTOPHER PIERCE / BRETT STEELE (Term 1) Course Lecturer: PIER VITTORIO AURELI (Term 2) Course Tutor: MOLLIE CLAYPOOL Teaching Assistants: FABRIZIO BALLABIO SHUMI BOSE POL ESTEVE Course Structure The course runs for 3 hours per week on Tuesday mornings in Terms 1 and 2. There are four parallel seminar sessions. Each seminar session is divided into parts, discussion and submission development. Seminar 10.00-12.00 Mollie Claypool, Fabrizio Ballabio, Shumi Bose and Pol Esteve Lecture 12.00-13.00 Christopher Pierce, Brett Steele and Pier Vittorio Aureli Attendance Attendance is mandatory to both seminars and lectures. We expect students to attend all lectures and seminars. Attendance is tracked to both seminars and lectures and repeated absence has the potential to affect your final mark and the course tutor and undergraduate coordinator will be notified. Marking Marking framework adheres to a High Pass with Distinction, High Pass, Pass, Low Pass, Complete-toPass system. Poor attendance can affect this final mark. Course Materials Readings for each week are provided both online on the course website at aafirstyearhts.wordpress.com and on the course library bookshelf. Students are expected to read each assigned reading every week to be discussed in seminar. The password to access the course readings is “readings”. TERM 1: CANONICAL BUILDINGS, PROJECTS, TEXTS In this first term of...
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